At the heart of tensions between France and Algeria, the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, announced, Wednesday January 22, the arrest in the morning of an Algerian influencer, Rafik M., who “called for violent acts to be committed on French territory on TikTok”.
The Minister of the Interior ended his message on the social network “don’t let anything pass”like on January 16, after the announcement of the arrest of another Algerian influencer, Mahdi B., convicted and then imprisoned. In his message, Mr. Retailleau did not specify where Rafik M. had been arrested on Wednesday morning.
Tensions are high between France and Algeria, particularly around the Western Sahara issues and the fate of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, imprisoned in Algeria since mid-November.
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-They deteriorated further recently with the arrest in Montpellier of a 59-year-old Algerian influencer, “Doualemn”, over a contentious video on TikTok. Put on a plane on January 9 for Algeria, this maintenance worker, father of two children, was sent back to France the same evening. On January 12, his detention was extended for twenty-six days by a judge. Mr. Retailleau estimated that by sending the influencer back to Paris, Algeria had sought to “humiliate France”. Algeria rejected French accusations “climbing” et « d’humiliation »invoking a “disinformation campaign” against Algiers.
Since the beginning of January, several other Algerian influencers and a Franco-Algerian have been targeted by procedures in France for hate speech.
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